I'm Here
by iluvafjk
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha didn't like Naruto Uzumaki at first, but an incident turned them into the best of friends.


**I'm Here**

Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha had been best friends for almost the whole of their lives. The Uzumaki and Uchiha families were very close business partners and had even opened a joint corporate – each had their own companies, but recently they opened a joint company under both their names – so it was no wonder that the two sons of the families were best buddies. In addition to that, Naruto was an only child and he was particularly active and lively. He would have killed someone – or even himself – if he didn't have someone to talk to everyday, especially with his parents mostly away from home, managing their growing companies.

There were two Uchiha boys, but Sasuke was the one closer in age to Naruto. Sasuke was only three months older than Naruto, and despite their opposing personalities, they became best friends relatively quickly. Sasuke was, in contrary to Naruto, very quiet and stoic. It was surprising to Sasuke's parents that they became good friends, because Sasuke made very few friends – if any – in school, but Naruto almost effortlessly befriended him, to the point where Sasuke had admitted that he wouldn't let anyone hurt the Uzumaki child in any way.

The first day of their meeting was rather rocky, actually. Naruto's parents brought him to the Uchiha house to let him meet the Uchiha sons – because it was just right for parents to ensure that their children have a good relationship with their best friends' children – and Naruto, being clumsy as he was, had been tackled by some stone sitting quietly on the ground. Unfortunately – or fortunately? – he had managed to save himself from possible injuries by landing on Sasuke, who had been unlucky enough to be standing right in front of Naruto.

So the two boys had never managed to shake hands or introduce themselves properly to each other. The Uzumaki parents' "Naruto, apologise!" and the Uchiha's "Ah, there's no need to apologise, Sasuke is fine, aren't you, Sasuke?" were enough for them to learn each other's names. And anyway their parents had been talking non-stop – in the car on the journey to Uchiha's house; during dinner the day before; two days previously when Naruto's mom, Kushina drove him to school, talking how _gorgeous_ Sasuke and his older brother were – about the other's son to make both boys anticipate their first meeting (although not so much on Sasuke's side).

After that incident the parents had pretty much left them to let the two interact with each other, while they discuss whatever it was adults talk about. The two boys' interaction mostly consisted of Sasuke trying to shake Naruto off his back to leave him alone, and Naruto attaching himself to Sasuke's side, saying how sorry he was and asking if Sasuke was okay. In his annoyance, Sasuke finally bit out, "I'm _fine_, now _shut up_, will you?" which kind of surprised Naruto because the blond had almost thought that Sasuke was mute. Then Sasuke stalked to his room and Naruto followed, until the raven turned around right in front of his and his brother Itachi's bedroom and told Naruto coldly, "Stay out," and almost slammed the door in his face.

Sasuke then read his comic books, played games and all other stuff. Weirdly, he felt that something was wrong but couldn't put his finger as to what. He ignored it, thinking it might be some school stuff that he had forgotten to do. It was okay, he would somehow recall it, and anyway if he really had forgotten about it, his academics wouldn't be affected in the slightest way. After all, he was an Uchiha.

After almost an hour, he got bored and decided to get himself a drink. When he opened his bedroom door, to his surprise, Naruto was still standing there, his face brightening up when he saw the raven.

"I've been waiting for you!" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully, stunning Sasuke.

He had quickly concealed his shock and scowled, stepping aside the idiot blond and stalked downstairs to get the drink.

"Hey, can we play something? I'm kinda bored," Naruto had attached himself back to the raven, his hands reaching out to grab Sasuke' shoulders from behind.

Sasuke shrugged the hands irritably and just descended down the stairs without regarding the other boy. He grudgingly wondered silently if the moron had been standing all the way from the time he locked himself in the room until just now, but decided that he couldn't have been because no one would've been that idiotic.

"Hey, can we play outside? To be honest your bedroom door isn't so interesting and staring at it for one whole hour was REALLY boring."

... Apparently the Uchiha had been wrong.

He just snorted in response to that, although his mind had been thinking how someone could be so moronic.

Though he felt this weird warm feeling at the pit of his stomach too.

Sasuke frowned, finding the weird feeling neither pleasant, nor unpleasant. So he just didn't dwell on it and poured himself some milk from the refrigerator.

"Can I have some?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide with anticipation. Sasuke just took a glance at him and ignored the blond idiot, gulping down his glass of milk.

Then from the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw a flash of rejection and hurt in Naruto's expression. It was gone the next second, replaced by a pout. The raven suddenly felt a churn in his stomach, and with a scowl, he reached into the overhead cabinet to grab another glass and thrust it towards the other boy without a word.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. He grabbed the glass slowly – rather uncertainly, then his face broke into the widest grin the Uchiha had seen that day. Naruto took the carton of milk and helped himself before downing the entire glass.

That had made Sasuke's mouth turn up at the corners for a brief moment, before the raven forced it back down to its usual scowl.

"Aaahh! The milk is tasty!" Naruto rubbed the back of his hand onto his mouth, smiling contentedly.

Sasuke looked away and decided to just ignore the idiot's antique and his ready smiles. Naruto's smile was infectious, and Sasuke couldn't say he liked that.

Both of them put away their glasses and Sasuke walked out to the living room to go up the stairs and lock himself in his room again. He thought that it was better not to be around the Uzumaki too long, it made him and his body do weird things involuntarily.

Naruto was on Sasuke's tail as they exited the kitchen, and they saw their parents walking into the living room. Naruto's face lit up as he saw his parents, and he ran to his mother's embrace, Kushina Uzumaki kissing the top of his head as she half-crouched to hug her son.

"Sasuke, have you been playing with Naruto?" Sasuke turned to see his mother, who was waiting for his answer with a warm smile, beckoning him to come closer.

Walking over slowly to the adults, Sasuke didn't know what to answer – he hadn't been exactly playing with Naruto, but if he admitted it, his mother would be very disappointed in him. And now the blond idiot would tell their parents that Sasuke hadn't been treating him right and that he had been mean to him –

"Yeah, it's so fun!" Naruto beamed, his face void of any grudge against Sasuke. "We just drank milk! It's so tasty!"

Sasuke's mother smiled at her stunned son, a sense of pride in her eyes.

That effectively replaced Sasuke's shock with guilt.

"You are really a wonderful kid, Sasuke!" Kushina let go of his son and in turn hugged Sasuke tightly, Sasuke's nose full of her sweet smell – kind of similar to her son's – which he found nice. Both Kushina's and Naruto's hands were so warm.

"Dad!" Naruto's shout made Sasuke snap his eyes open – he didn't even realise he had closed them – and saw over Kushina's shoulder, his dad and Naruto's strolling in to join their families.

Sasuke's dad rested his hand on Sasuke's shoulder after ruffling his son's black hair, smiling slightly at Naruto who launched himself and linked his arms around his father's neck. Chuckling, Minato Uzumaki held his son and kissed Naruto's cheek.

Sasuke's father just smiled at his son, although he didn't go and hug him or anything. The Uchiha household didn't usually go touchy-feely to each other.

"Dad, you said earlier you're gonna bring us fishing with Uncle Fugaku, right?" Naruto beamed at his father, arms still around Minato's neck.

Sasuke's ears perked up at that. His father had told him earlier in the morning that he had a surprise waiting for Sasuke for later, and that he had been sure that Sasuke would like it. That had made Sasuke excited, despite his disinterest in having to meet the Uzumaki child beforehand. It wasn't Sasuke's fault that he didn't like company nor socialising.

Sasuke hadn't known that his father had planned to bring him go fishing. Although it wasn't exactly a fun activity, Sasuke loved fishing. He liked sitting there waiting for his bait to score a fish, it was peaceful and calm. Plus, he would get to chat with his father, a luxury that Sasuke rarely obtain due to his family's rising business that drained Fugaku's quality time with his sons.

Sasuke turned to look at his father expectantly, his eyes lighting up. He had missed spending time with his father; it had been a long time since the last time his father, Itachi and he had went somewhere to spend the day alone, or even the whole family. Sure, they always dined together whenever either or both parents were available during meal times – Mikoto Uchiha insisted that they _had_ to, so that her sons wouldn't get deprived of their parents' already inconsiderable presence in their daily lives. But to go fishing; that was different!

Sasuke almost smiled at that thought, feeling genuinely happy for the first time today.

Minato's bright blue eyes – _very_ similar to Naruto's – suddenly showed a hint of guilt and glanced at Sasuke. "Ummm... About that..."

A heavy weight had seemed to fell in the cave of Sasuke's stomach.

Naruto frowned, "Dad?" He then turned to Fugaku.

With a weary look, Fugaku lowered himself on one knee and rested his large hands on Sasuke's small, skinny shoulder.

"I'm so, so sorry, kids, but we would have to postpone the outing to another day," Fugaku said, his eyes staring guiltily to Sasuke's blank face. "There was a sudden problem coming up in the company stocks (Sasuke's eyebrow twitched) and I really need to get it sorted out as soon as possible."

Silence met that. Fugaku still stared at Sasuke, who hadn't said anything.

Naruto broke the silence, "Does that mean you can't go too, dad?" his voice small and dejected.

"Yes, dear, I'm so sorry," Minato ran his fingers through his son's blond hair. "But you get to stay with Sasuke for a while more (Sasuke's head snapped up at that), maybe two more hours? I'm sure you boys won't mind that, right?" He gave an uncertain smile to Sasuke. Sasuke didn't say anything.

Naruto pouted slightly, "Mmh, fine, but you have to promise we'll go next time." He offered his pinky at Minato, and Minato twisted his own around it.

Fugaku tightened his grip on Sasuke's shoulders. Sasuke turned away.

"I'm sorry," Fugaku said, looking truly guilty, "I'll make sure I won't break my promise next time."

Sasuke nodded curtly without opening his mouth, a frown still marring his feature. Fugaku sighed and stood up, patting Sasuke's head slightly.

"Shall we go, Minato?"

* * *

><p>Sasuke stomped outside the house, the blond idiot at his heels.<p>

"I was looking forward to fishing with our dads," Naruto said with a huff. He was also walking with heavy steps, his arms folded in front of his body. The raven just ignored him. He continued to trudge his way to the corner of the garden.

The garden next to the house building was Sasuke's favourite site to brood. Mikoto Uchiha took care of the flowers and the small trees every time she was free and often invited Sasuke to come along with her to help her out. Sasuke was responsible for the colourful flowers at one corner and he was proud to say that he had done a great job ensuring that they grew well.

Sasuke walked slowly as he neared his favourite spot, his fingers grazing the petals of the many blooming flowers – the whole time Naruto 'wow'ed and 'aaah'ed and made comments here and there, but the Uchiha paid no mind to him – until he found a small stool where he usually sat on during his brooding sessions, and lowered his head.

_It was unfair!_ Why couldn't Sasuke just have one – ONE! – day with his dad? He had been looking forward to the event his dad had told him about, and now he only got to spend the rest of the afternoon with this Uzumaki child who apparently had some kind of birth defect – he just _couldn't_ stop talking!

Gritting his teeth, the raven clenched his fists. Warmth flooded his eyes.

"Hey, is there any other chair I can sit on?" Naruto chirped, glancing left and right to look for anything he could sit on. Hearing no reply from the raven sitting next to him, he huffed and squatted, hugging his knees to his chest.

"Hey Sasuke, is there anything fun we can do here –" Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, and noticed specks of water on the back of the raven's hands. Naruto glanced up and turned his head slightly to take a better look at Sasuke's face.

Eyes widening, Naruto frowned slightly, then kneeled and lifted raven bangs with one hand. He reached up and gave a swift kiss on Sasuke's pale forehead.

Sasuke snapped his eyes open and almost pushed the idiot away, but the blond reached around the Uchiha and hugged him. The raven found himself unable to move, and felt like his eyes were on fire.

Naruto patted his head and whispered, "There, there."

That moment, Sasuke faintly felt his hand moving up and grabbed Naruto's shirt at his back. His forehead – the spot where the blond had just kissed him felt particularly hot and sensitive – found Naruto's right shoulder. He shuddered as more tears fell.

"I'm here," Naruto murmured gently. He rubbed Sasuke's back as he let the other cry silently on his shoulder.

They stayed that way for some time – very long, in Sasuke's opinion – before Naruto finally pulled away and inspected Sasuke's face, smiling warmly.

"You okay?"

Sasuke sniffed, his hand still clenched at Naruto's shirt, and nodded.

"It works!" Naruto threw his hands up in the air, his eyes forming two happy curves. Taken aback, Sasuke released his hands.

"What works?" Sasuke asked, bewildered.

Naruto beamed at the raven, and said with a warm smile, "Whenever I cry, my mom would hug me and pat my back like this," he hugged Sasuke for the second time – the Uchiha blushing furiously – and patted his back. "And then she would say, 'There, there,' and tell me that she's there for me."

Sasuke didn't know what to reply to that, so he just looked away. His cheeks were still pinkish, and his eyes rather puffy now. Sasuke would hate to see how he looked that time, not to mention in front of the idiot! A stranger!

Or not anymore?

Sasuke let go of Naruto's shirt that was clenched in his hand, and muttered a small "Thanks," to the blond who was still staring at him expectantly.

At that, Naruto grinned widely, "No problem."

Naruto stood up, patting both his knees to brush off the dirt from the ground from when he was kneeling. He offered his hand to Sasuke who was still sitting on the stool.

"Let's go find something fun to do," Naruto said to Sasuke, as the raven took the hand and stood up too.

"Okay. I can show you my room."

* * *

><p>The corners of Sasuke's mouth turned up on recalling the incidents which later on turned him and the blond idiot into best friends. He was sitting on his desk and staring at childhood photos of him and Naruto on his laptop, chin on the palm of his left hand.<p>

That certain blond idiot is currently sitting behind him on his own desk, scratching his head confusedly, the other hand holding a crumpled sheet of paper containing prompts for an essay assignment due tomorrow – he had crumpled and thrown the poor paper in rage right at the door before even taking one step into his shared bedroom with Sasuke.

They were now first years in university. They had chosen to stay in the dormitory, because it was nearer and they wanted to stay away from their parents, for a change. First-years were to stay in a two-bedded room and naturally, they became roommates. It wasn't because their homes were so far away, but staying together was nicer, and more fun.

Sasuke lifted his arms and yawned. He had browsed through the files in his laptop because he was bored while doing his assignment. It wasn't due tomorrow, but he decided he couldn't procrastinate if he wanted to fulfill his life-long goal: to beat Itachi. In just one aspect of their lives. It was a very tough goal, since his older brother is _that_ perfect.

Still, one could aspire to surpass perfection, as much of an impossibility that was.

A head suddenly plopped itself onto Sasuke's right shoulder, making the raven turn started.

"Saaasukeeeeeee, I'm boreddddd," Naruto whined. He looked as if he was in great pain, which made the Uchiha snigger. The Uzumaki had moved across the room on his wheeled chair, and now he was behind Sasuke, his body supported by the shoulder just beneath his neck.

"Stop whining and get some work done, moron," Sasuke smirked, turning his head back to his laptop, minimizing the window he just stared at.

"I hate this assignment, the professors haven't even taught me anything much and now they're asking me to write a 1000-word essay on whatever shit this is which I don't even have a clue about!" the blond pouted, turning his head slightly so he was resting his cheek on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Next time, don't text in lectures," Sasuke was still smirking. "Even though I'm not always busy when you're in lectures, you gotta listen to the professors if you want to pass this term."

"But they're all boring," the blond whined some more, his hands moved to clutch the back Sasuke's t-shirt, "I have much more fun texting you, at least you don't make me sleep." He glanced to Sasuke's laptop monitor, looking at what the raven was doing.

"Yeah, but I can't give you any mark on any of your tests so you better be listening to what the old guy in front is say–"

Naruto suddenly grabbed Sasuke's hand on the mouse, and moved the cursor to restore a minimised window.

Sasuke frowned at the blond, "What are you doing?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were looking at these?" Naruto accused him, a pout back on his face. He made Sasuke shift so he could press the right arrow button to see more pictures of himself and Sasuke on the laptop screen.

"I was bored and found these when I was browsing through my files," Sasuke said with a small smile. Naruto's head was back on his shoulder as the owner stared at the monitor, also smiling to himself.

"Hey, I didn't know you have this picture!" Naruto beamed at the monitor.

The picture showed himself and the raven next to him, standing side by side, but said Uchiha was looking away from Naruto, a scowl on his face. Naruto was evidently either not aware of the former's scowl or only smiling for the sake of the camera. Though, his smile was so wide and bright that Sasuke chose to believe that the moron hadn't been aware of his annoyance.

"It was in a file my mom sent me to save in my laptop. She said I _have to_ look at it once in a while, so that I don't miss home," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes, "Which is kinda impossible, because we've been going home every week, now," he laughed.

"Mmm," Naruto was smiling, too, his head still perched on the raven's shoulder, right hand on the keyboard, while his eyes stared at the monitor, as if learning the picture earlier.

"This was when you still hated me, right," the blond commented.

Sasuke stared at the monitor blankly, though his lips formed a small curve.

"Maybe."

"You did," Naruto smacked Sasuke's arm playfully. "You were an asshole."

"I thought I still am?" Sasuke smirked.

"Yeah, you are," Naruto lifted his head from Sasuke's shoulder and stood up before scooting over to the Uchiha's bed and laid down, heaving a sigh.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and stood up too, motioning the blond to make a space on the bed. He loved his bed, and he didn't like anyone to touch it, except for his parents and Naruto, and he still would like himself to be on it too when they were. He was weirdly territorial that way.

Naruto grunted and rolled his body so that he was on his stomach, Sasuke lowering himself down onto his bed and sat next to Naruto, leaning on his pillow.

They stayed that way for a while, neither moving. Sasuke almost thought that the other was sleeping when the blond suddenly turned and rested his head on Sasuke's thigh, lying on the side of his body.

"I hate university," Naruto grumbled.

"Me too," Sasuke sighed.

Silence.

"I miss home," Naruto mumbled.

Hesitating for a second, Sasuke replied, "Me too."

Naruto turned his head to glance at Sasuke, meeting the raven's eyes, and smiled slightly to himself. He rested his head back on Sasuke's thigh and got comfortable.

Sasuke played with Naruto's blond locks, his pale fingers looking sick in comparison with the hair colour. Thankfully he was a raven. The other teen's blond hair and tanned complexion made a more suitable – and attractive, in his opinion – combination.

Upon receiving no reaction for a while now, Sasuke lowered his head to get see his best friend better, then snorted when he noticed the Uzumaki had fallen asleep.

Sasuke stretched his arms over his head, suddenly feeling sleepy too. He rested one arm behind his head and the other on Naruto's shoulder, taking one last glance at his best friend's sleeping figure before closing his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

He might be an asshole, but he would always be there for Naruto whenever he needed him. And he knew that Naruto would, too.

**END**

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

This is supposed to be kind of a NaruSasu, though I didn't go for a romantic relationship between the two. Hope you guys like this fic and I'm looking forward to your comments and reviews!


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